Siddle&#39;s personality impresses

The British media really aren't an easy bunch to impress. But Peter Siddle had them eating out of the palm of his hand this week with his refreshing responses and cheeky smile.

It is completely understandable.

Siddle has the ability to produce terrifying bursts of pace and has the sort of scowl that could peel paint off a wall.

In an increasingly sanitised sporting world, he has the sort of personality that draws people to a television screen or makes them buy newspapers.

And the best part, Australian cricket's new cult hero isn't bunging on a thing.

He explained the spell in which he painted Graeme Swann's body black and blue with short balls in Cardiff last Sunday "was just good fun".

The right-arm speedster was then asked whether he had received a letter from Cricket Australia about not sledging the opposition.

"If it was sent ... I don't think we received it yet," he said with his toothy grin.

But Siddle was just warming up, with the print mob taking great delight in the tale of how he first picked up the nickname of Sid Vicious.

"At the cricket academy, Tim Nielsen was the coach and Jamie Siddons was the assistant," he said.

"He was Sids and I was Sids, so I got Sid Vicious and that's what I've been ever since.

"They reckon I go a bit fiery and the eyes go red and I get going.

"That's what gets me going out in the field. That's when I reckon I'm bowling at my best when I get fired up, charging in.

"The sooner it happens, the better it is for the team. I'm very relaxed off the pitch, very laidback, nothing bothers me."

But Siddle just can't help but get fired up on the field.

"That's just been a part of me, whether I was growing up playing under-14s, under-16s or whatever to now, I guess," he said.

"It's just the way it gets me going, it gets my confidence going and I feel more at home when I'm in that state.

"It took me a while to get into it in the (Cardiff) match, but hopefully this match I'll liven up a little bit earlier and get amongst it."

The flip side to his on-field menace is that he is always going to cop stick from the crowd.

But the quick from country Victoria seems to feed off that anyway.

His parents were in Cardiff last week and he was asked if they had told him about any of the crowd's less than tasteful taunts.

"They don't usually have to pass them on to me. I can usually hear most of them," he laughed.

"They're all pretty loud. They're fine about it all.

"I copped a lot of grief in South Africa (in the first Test in Johannesburg).

"It's just something you've got to get used to. No doubt the English hear it when they come to Australia.

"It's just the way I play my game, so I've got to get used to copping the grief."

The inevitable comparisons to current selector Merv Hughes, who seems to have let his trademark moustache grow to even more ridiculous proportions for the Ashes tour, is also not something he hides from.

"I spent plenty of time with him growing up through the junior ranks and all that kind of stuff, with Victoria as a team," he said."

"He's good to have a laugh and joke with. He's good fun.

"He loved (playing against England). He loved the Ashes series, the fight and the contest."

During his gut-busting performance on the heated final day in Wales, Siddle and England's Stuart Broad bumped shoulders on the pitch.

But don't expect the 24-year-old to snitch on opposition players.

Asked if cricket was a contact sport, he laughed.

"I suppose cricket is a contact sport when you get hit," he said.

That attitude might not seem so funny to English batsmen later this week at Lord's.